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Some Auto-Lite generator and starter tags are also available as repro from Classic & Exotic. There are pictures of them on their site.

classicandexotic.com/store/c-397-autolite.aspx

Dave, I'll pass that info long to Barry as well.

Saturday 23rd April 2011

Checked all the manifold nuts following the cold curing of the silicon gasket sealant since Thursday. Per the advice on the sealant tube, all tightened up by 1/4 to 1/2 a turn. Also checked the exhaust pipe bracket bolts and the exhaust pipe to exhaust manifold bolts, all OK. Then re-installed the fuel pump heatshield. With the Coupe still up on jackstands had to stand on a milk crate to get over the fixed bonnet(hood) side panel to do so. Took a few attempts because the milk crate tended to slip away from the Coupe especially, so it seemed, at those critical times of manoeuvering the heat shield around the manifold and laying it over to fit. Finally got there, then back under the Coupe to install the two screws which hold the lower edge of the heatshield to the bracket off the rear fuel pump bolt. While doing that Wade re-installed the air-cleaner for me because he was waiting for Rick's hoist to become vacant so he could grease Big Red. Under car work finished, returned the Coupe to terra firma, and started her up. Result? Good, no exhaust leak.

And why was Wade going to grease Big Red? Because next week he and Gina are journeying to Melbourne in Big Red during the coming week for a Packard Rally to Tasmania. Starting with an overnight ferry trip from Melbourne to Devonport then a couple of weeks touring the island before returning to Australia. I believe Rally participants include a couple of Packard Twelve's being shipped over from New Zealand. Wade will be gone for about a month and workshop posts are unlikely during that time.

Was also given a job to do for Wade next week when the Post Offices reopen after the Easter Break. In installing the waterpump Wade had rebuilt, for the '36 120 up on the Central Coast, the mechanic concerned had struck an obstacle, there wasn't a waterpump pulley! So I'm entrusted to post a pulley up so the job can be completed.

Quote:Emailed JD's and OD's suggestions to Barry, to which he responded "....could be exactly what I need.....emailed suppliers to check size. Sure appreciate the tip-offs....."

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Wednesday 27th April 2011

While Wade's away,
Mal will play,
Down at the workshop today.
Hooray, hooray, hooray!

Wade and Gina are travelling to Melbourne today in Big Red to rendezvous with the Spirit of Tasmania ferry for the trip across Bass Straight on Saturday for the start of the Tasmanian Packard Rally. So while Wade's away I'm taking the opportunity to do a little job on the Coupe. The front number plate on the Coupe is mounted on an Aluminium(Aluminum) plate which in turn mounts to the Coupe's number plate bracket. In addition to the number plate the Aluminium plate also has Club and Rally badges mounted on it. As time has gone on I've come to dislike the setup. But why was it done in the first place? Well all I can say is Mea Culpa, and offer the Streakers Defence(Defense) "it seemed like a good idea at the time". Be that as it may, the time had come to fix the situation.

I have about a dozen Aluminium bars each about 600mm x 47mm x 8mm and of which I've used small pieces at various times over the last 40 years. About a month ago I cold bent one of the bars to fit the contour of the front bumper grill guard bar. The Aluminium bar will be mounted on the bottom of the three front bumper grill guard bars and provide, in turn, a mounting for the badges. Had a couple of different thoughts as to how to clamp the Aluminium bar to the front bumper grill guard bar, one of which was to use small U bolts through the Aluminium bar. So on the way to the workshop stopped at the local hardware store and picked up the biggest of the smallest variety of U bolt they had. The smallest of the bigger variety they had was much too big to start with so I placed my faith in the biggest of the smallest even though I had some misgivings that it wouldn't be big enough. And it wasn't! But by the time I determined that, I'd already drilled holes in the Aluminium bar so remedial action was taken by hacksawing the ends off where the holes were. Didn't lose much, maybe 1/2" at each end at the most.

This meant Plan B came into play, and heaven help if Plan B didn't work, there was no Plan C! After hacksawing off the spoilt ends of the Aluminium bar I then hacksawed off, what was going to be a clamp, from a length of Aluminium channel the width of the Aluminium bar. Cleaned up the edges of the blank clamp on the benchgrinder then hackswaed a rectangular slot in the sides of the channel to accommodate the front bumper grill guard bars profile. Too late, I realised I needed to make the contour of the slot match the rounded profile of the front bumper grill guard bar! Scrap one clamp blank. Cut another off the length of channel, drill a hole to gain the contour required and hacksaw out the rest of the slots finishing with a file and on the benchgrinder. Much better, make a second clamp for the other end of the Aluminium bar and I had a pair. Next was marking and drilling holes in both the clamps and the Aluminium bar. This setup looks like it will do the job nicely just needed some nuts and bolts to put it together with.

Picked up the nuts and bolts required after dropping in to see DavidM and Veronique before they too departed for the Tasmanian Packard Rally. Did this in my guise as PACA Club Secretary taking up some membership renewal forms which David will process tonight in his guise of Membership Secretary before he and Veronique depart early tomorrow morning for Melbourne. That they are going in their '29 633 Roadster surprised me because I had heard they were going in their '29 Sedan. Even more so in that Tasmania is our southern most State and our coldest, especially with winter fast approaching. However Veronique was insistent that it should be the Roadster and, as David and Veronique have toured extensively in their '22 Sports Tourer, they are well versed in the (dis)comforts of open car driving. And David says because they are taking the Roadster when the opportunity(read that as weather) presents top down touring will be the order of the day.

In order to accommodate the luggage required for over 3 weeks away the trunk off the Sedan was transferred to the Roadster and the rumble seat squab removed, every little bit helps. But back to the trunk, David had made it for the sedan just prior to their departure to the Kangaroo Island Rally last year. He'd finished it two days before they left for the Rally and thinking he wouldn't have any chance of having it covered in time rang his upholsterer to arrange to have it covered on his return, it could stay painted for the duration of the Rally. The upholsterer though, when told, said bring it over and whipped up an excellent vinyl cover in time for that Rally. And back to the rumbleseat too. On the floor of the rumbleseat, pushed right forward, is a spare engine! Did I say spare? No it's actually not a spare but the engine out of David's '12 Maxwell. Reason being there's a bloke in Melbourne, somewhat of a guru in Veteran car circles there who is going to get the engine running as it should. David has had a lot of trouble getting the engine to run properly and is taking advantage of the opportunity to drop the engine in, on the way to Tasmania, then pick it up on the way home, hopefully now running at 100%. This guy is also giving David a ride in his '12 Maxwell so David will know what it should be like. Apparently this guy also says if you just keep pushing it the Maxwell will keep getting faster and faster until the engine just can't take it any more. That said, David says he's only ever gotten his Maxwell up to about 26mph, at which speed there's no danger of blowing the engine!

Will be back at the workshop on Friday to finish the badge bar. And here's something for Wade, if he gets a chance to log onto PackardInfo while away, a package from Max's arrived today, see pic of invoice for contents.

EDIT - Bit more on the Maxwell. The diff is with Award Diffs at the moment. David tells me when he took it over he'd prepared drawings explaining it because it was different to the diffs he was familiar with. But in explaining everything he could see the guys eyes glazing over and it turns out the guy "did his time", ie apprenticeship, on Model T's and that many modern day truck diffs have the same features as this 99 year old diff has, so he's very familiar with what's required. Also, the guy asked David if he'd like a new crown wheel and pinion to be machined up for it? David might, but is waiting to hear what the cost of this exercise would be!

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Friday 29th April 2011

Continued with the badge bar today, First checked that it would bolt onto the bumper grill guard bar. Well it almost did, only trouble was the bolts I bought for this purpose were too short! A quick trip to the hardware store for new hardware and I was back in business. Then, back on the bench, mocked up the badge bar with the various badges to get placement and spacings right. Marked holes for the six badges which will be mounted although there is space for 1 or 2 more, but future rallies will fill that in time. Centre punched the holes and using the drill press bored pilot holes for each badge mount. Went back to the bench and re-checked the badges to the pilot holes and all except one looked good. Pressed on with the 3/16" finish drill and completed that phase just needing some file work on the one hole to get it to align. That's the best I've ever done, usually have about 50% of the holes out of alignment. So for these twelve holes my error rate was reduced to 8.333%, almost acceptable! Then in mounting the badges to the bar found the bolts I'd purchased were too long. But a session with the hacksaw followed by clean up on the grinder remedied that. Left things at that but have brought the semi-finished bar home to clean it and polish up the badges for installation on Monday.

John told me today that Wade had come in on Tuesday morning to pick up a few things he'd forgotten to pack in Big Red for the trip south. Wade had also helped John solve a wiring problem John had with a car he was working on. About an hour later John rang Wade to thank him because the car he was working on was now fixed. Instead of getting Wade, Gina answered the phone and told John that Wade was very unhappy because he was in the middle of changing a flat tyre on Big Red. The weather here for the last week or so has been wet and miserable so you can just imagine Wade by the side of the road getting soaked while wrestling a '37 Super Eight wheel and tyre onto Big Red. Getting it off is the easy part, the size, weight and alignment factors in getting it back on are the hard part. And Graham tells me that Wade and Gina had at least reached Sale last night. Graham hails from Sale and Wade had rung to let him know he arrived at his home town.

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Quote:

Mal, I followed the given link. Quotation: "...In Germany it would be called Nackerblitz (nude lightning),...".
Perhaps in a different Germany than the one I live in. We don't invent special names for every single folly.

If you get many more bumper badges, you're going to have to consider heavier-duty front springs to carry all that extra weight!

I learned that men should wear large medals above the left breast pocket.

Dave,

You ain't seen nothing till you see Big Bad Barry's '35!

Gerd,

Soviet military types easily qualify.

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Monday 2nd May 2011

Yesterday, at home, I'd polished the badges to be mounted and attempted to polish the badge bar itself but only with limited success on the latter. At the workshop today re-finished the front of the bar on the belt sander and wire wheel, then re-polished it. Using contact adhesive, glued a narrow strip of thin rubber to the rear of the bar where it bears against the bumper grill guard bar. Trial fit of the badge bar to the bumper grill guard bar was good and with it in place measured for rubber spacers to fit between the badge bar and the retaining clamps. Cut the spacers from a length of fuel injection hose I'd bought a couple of years ago to replace a leaking hose on my son's BMW. Repco would only sell the hose in minimum 1 metre lengths so I ended up keeping more than I used, but it came in handy this time round. With everything ready, bolted the badge bar to the bumper grill guard bar. Then the badges were mounted to the badge bar with a minor adjustment made to the PACA badge in the middle, contact cementing a small piece of thin rubber to its back to avoid a squeak. All done, helped Rick push a Mazda van out of the way then drove the Coupe home. The whole exercise took something like 8 hours to complete, spread over 3 days, although the more proficient and confident would have accomplished it in a couple of hours. But I am happy to have achieved what I achieved, being an accomplishment for me.

Tomorrow I'm taking the Coupe for a run about 100 miles north. Should be a good hit out for the freshly re-gasketed manifolds. Going to see a guy, AllanC, who has a '40 Convertible Coupe and who is interested in joining PACA. On the way I'm picking up PeterL who sighted the car about a month ago at the Hunter Valley Steamfest which also has a large car display as part of the festivities. Apparently Peter went looking for the owner of the '40 Convertible Coupe while Allan went looking for the owner of the green '38 Sedan, Peter! Because Peter and Allan's paths didn't cross that day I took up the running as club secretary and 5 phone calls later, over the course of a couple of days, Allan made contact with me. From there I've arranged to meet him tomorrow and it's only fitting that Peter accompany me.

And yesterday, Gina emailed me a couple of pic's taken with her iPhone of most of the Packards lined up at the start of the Tasmanian Rally.

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